The most helpful favorable review

The most helpful critical review

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 starsTetris Returns to the DS family.
My wife and I love to play multiplayer Nintendo DS games against each other, usually in bed right before going to sleep. The real stand-out titles for us are Mario Kart, Planet Puzzle League, and especially Tetris DS (TDS). This version of Tetris was only available from 2006-2007, and is now out of print - I have heard something about Nintendo's license to publish it...

3.0 out of 5 starsChallenger
Very hard game it's going to take me awhile to beat this, I like a challenge . I would recommend to my friends that also like a challenge Game came on time and in good condition.

My wife and I love to play multiplayer Nintendo DS games against each other, usually in bed right before going to sleep. The real stand-out titles for us are Mario Kart, Planet Puzzle League, and especially Tetris DS (TDS). This version of Tetris was only available from 2006-2007, and is now out of print - I have heard something about Nintendo's license to publish it expired, so they had to pull it, but I'm not sure why it had such a short run.

Now, Tetris DS's most unique quality is that it remains the only DS game that allows 10 players with one game cartridge. It's also got lots of Nintendo themes like Mario, Link, Yoshi, and Metroid, and the music is remixed from those games, too, not the canned, klinky "Russian" stuff that they normally use.

Because Tetris DS is now out of print and therefore rare, it's more valuable. It usually goes for $50-100 online, and I have read several stories of people who get a copy on eBay and it won't run on their DSi's or other newer systems (ahem, piracy).

Now, 3 years later, a new company's got the license to sell Tetris on the DS, and it was released today: Tetris Party Deluxe (TPD). The bottom line? TPD is a good game, but TDS remains one of the best handheld games ever made, and is definitely still a better game than Tetris Party.

TPD is fun, of course, but often too plain. Multiplayer is now capped at 8 players, and after a few dozen games, we're getting used to the new items (weapons that you use against opponents, powerups you use on yourself) and they're pretty cool. TDS used familiar Nintendo icons for items and they were totally different than these. Unfortunately, the majority of the multiplayer modes in the new game require each player has their own copy of the game. TPD makes no use of the touch screen on the DS whatsoever, not even in the menus, though occasionally you blow in the the microphone for defense. Tetris DS at least had "Touch Tetris" mode. Oh, and Tetris Party defaults to the aft-mentioned klinky "Russian" music.

In the end, Tetris Party Deluxe is good, fun, and worth the money. Tetris DS, however, is still amazing, brilliant, and worth double the price - which is about what you'll pay for it. If you find it.

Little history about me, I've always loved Tetris. My first memory of it is on the very original Gameboy, and then playing Tengen Tetris on NES. On the DS Tetris DS remains in many people's Top 10 DS games ever created, but often with some equivocation. Take me, for example, I think Tetris DS is one of the best DS games ever made for the wonderful little handheld, but it doesn't rank that high in my favorite Tetris games of all time. Why? The infinite spin. And by infinite I mean infinite. You can literally spin the pieces forever. That change in gameplay alone angered me (as a Tetris fan), but the sheer number of alternative modes of gameplay in the original made up for it. So enough about that. You get it, Tetris DS was great, but Nintendo lost the rights to continue producing it so now its a collectors item of sorts.

Well, if you don't own Tetris DS, Tetris Party Deluxe DS is a great reason to justify NOT spending 80-100 bucks in search of used copy of Tetris DS (and avoid the risk of being duped into buying an illegal copy). Is Tetris Party so good I'll ebay my used copy of Tetris DS? Nope. Here's the short and sweet of it: There's enough difference between the two games that it justifies owning and playing both. The core gameplay of both titles is tight. The controls are nearly identical, in other words perfect for the game. And Tetris Party's Marathon mode does NOT allow you to spin infinitely. Yes, you can spin for about 5 seconds before finally placing it, but take too long and the game simply drops the piece down where it currently is. I love the change. Others may not, however. But remember, my favorite version of Tetris had no infinite spins, only showed you 1 upcoming piece and NEVER let you save a piece in reserve to be used later.

In the modes that Tetris DS and TPD share, they're both top notch. The main differences come in the way of background music and graphical backgrounds. Tetris DS employed a Nintendo's Greatest Hits approach. Metroid background, Yoshi, Mario...you get the idea. If you love Nintendo, you'll love that. And I do! TPD is more stale, but also more in line with the original (with the Russian music etc). TPD lets you set music per level or turn it off completely, and allows you to select from about 20 or so backgrounds. Honestly though, when you're into a game the last thing you notice is the music or the backgrounds unless they're intrusive. I definitely prefer the Mario approach, but there's nothing at all wrong with TPD. Both games utilize a gameplay area of roughly the same size, with future pieces lined up along the sides. In both games you get Marathon mode, and they're similar but different, but both very good.

Where TPD really shines for me is in all the record keeping it does. If you love improving your scores and times, TPD gives you reason to do it. You see the best time displayed and the best score where applicable and then its up to you to just go for it. I haven't played the "Party" aspect of the game though, so don't look to this review to cover the multiplayer options. I'm speaking solely about single player. Yes, Im aware PARTY is in the title, but for me its been a party of one and I'm enjoying it!

Again, what truly differentiates this game and Tetris DS are the extra modes. There isn't a single extra mode in this game that I haven't enjoyed a ton, whereas Tetris DS had a couple I couldn't stand (push!). Bombliss (your tetris pieces have a bomb embedded in them that go off when a line they're in is filled or another bomb near it goes off. Place 4 of these pieces in the form of a square and they merge into a giant bomb that takes out even more pieces). Speed mode is just what it sounds like - how fast can you clear 40 lines. Stage Climber has a little guy on the bottom of the playfield, and he can hop up 1 block at a time, so its up to you to drop pieces in such a way that it builds a ladder of sorts to the top of the level. Shadow mode puts a picture on the screen and asks you to place pieces inside of it until its completely filled like a puzzle. You're graded on time and what percentage of pieces fell outside of the picture's area. There's a beat the computer mode, which starts off easy enough but gets insanely difficult quickly. Perhaps too quickly. Tetris DS has the same mode and it ramps up the difficulty more steadily. One of my other favorite new modes is one where you control a single Tetris piece as it falls down a 400 line playfield. Coming up at you are lines that you must fit your piece through as it falls. You can simply let it fall and slowly work your way around all the obstacles, or you can hold down on the dpad and speed your way through. You're graded on the time it takes you to get to the bottom, so the emphasis here is on speed and precision.

Anyway, to wrap this up I highly recommend this game to anyone that already owns Tetris DS and simply wants more Tetris, but moreso I recommend this game to anyone that really loves Tetris but was unfortunate enough to have missed out on Tetris DS. I apologize for not reviewing the multiplayer aspects of the game, but my wife is simply terrible at the game and has a nasty temper when she plays games, and I'd like my DSi XL to remain in one piece. I cant get the game to run online because Nintendo is still in the dark ages with the networking encryption methods it supports on the DS and my router simply uses encryption that's too strong for the DS to handle. In order to run DS games online you have to set your router to no encryption or simply use the lowest encryption method.

This is a fun, classic game. The gameplay does not take advantage of the touch screen, but the button controls work very well. If you are a fan of Tetris, you will enjoy the new variety this version offers. It also offers the classic game play.

It's been years since I've played Tetris and I must say I just love Tetris Party. It has the same original game that I remember playing in the past. They have also added things like shadow, field climber, computer battle and a bombliss mode which are fun to play.

It seems like forever since Tetris has been available (outside of purchasing a foreign copy on bay). This version and the WII version captures all the fun and challenge of the classic game and adds the new twist of head-to-head competition. The several competitive games are interesting...although a couple are difficult to figure out at first. Overall this is a worthy successor to the classic game and well suited to the DS platform and the WII platform.

I have never played the regular Tetris DS. I was a little late to embrace video games and it was way out of my price range, even if I could find it, when I started playing my DS. I do like other games that are very Tetris like (in particular there was a certain feel to Puzzle Chronicles DS version as to make it very similar). So my experience is kind of limited.

Tetris Party Deluxe is a fun game. There are a variety of modes and all sorts of ways you can play that make this a pretty expansive version. However there were a few things that really brought the rating down for me. Cheif among them is the fact there is NO TOUCH SCREEN SUPPORT at all - nothing - for this version of Tetris. You only use the buttons and D pad and L/R. It's as if the game designers thought they were designing for the GameBoyAdvance. Hey - you out there - it's 2010!! We use touch screen's now - and indoor bathrooms and we pave our roads. And we have wireless - and the Ipad. And this game could have been greatly enhanced by use of the touch screen. There are some games where the lack of touch screen is appropriate - this is not one of them. This is an opportunity glaringly missed. Loss: 1/2 star

Graphics and Music - o.k. who thought some strange wedding music from a subtitled film I don't even remember was a good option for this game? Really? Come on - there are millions of options when it comes to music and we have to listen to something that sounds like Uncle Sal's choice from 1940? (No offense Sal). *shakes head* So then you get to the graphics - which are small guys..small. I have a DSi XL and the box that you play in is just over 50% of the screen. I can't imagine how small this looks on a regular Nintendo DS. I'm not entirely sure it is playable by someone of my, shall we say, years young? I fail to see why the entire screen or much of it could not be used. It makes no sense to me. Loss for the combo of missteps: 1/2 star.

I get that Tetris is addictive. I like addictive puzzler's. But the lack of touch screen support coupled with regretable music and small graphics make this, for me, a slightly below average to average game. Playing it on the XL is fun but holding the XL in bed while using all the buttons not so much - at least for long periods.

I wish I'd of waited for the inevitable price drop to the twenty buck mark. At the current price point I'd recommend this only for diehard Tetris fans. If you are a huge puzzle fan then give it a go but know going in what the issues are. For those of us who already have a wide variety of puzzler's I'd recommend hanging on until a used copy of the original Tetris DS shows up somewhere or wait for a price drop or used copy. Don't get me wrong - the game is enjoyable to play - it's just not quite as enjoyable as it could have been. Really this would be a 3.5 star or so game. I went back and changed my rating to 4 stars in recognition of the fact that it is enjoyable.

Well I bought this game for xmas gift for my daughter....I already test to make sure that its playing right... and wow you get hooked on it....so yes i enjoy the game and hopefully my daughter does too.